



AN 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

AT AUGUSTA, 
M:_A.IICE[ 5,1857; 

CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE FARMER PRESIDENTS 
OF THE SOCIETY.^ 



B'Z' -W" I L Xj I .A. :m: ^^WILIilS 



PORTLAND: 

PRINTTKD 1$Y BROWN THUKSTON. 
1857. 



AN 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

AT AUGUSTA, 
MA.Il OH 5, 18 57; 

CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE FORMER PRESIDENTS. 
OF THE SOCIETY. 



B^ST -V^XXaX^XJ^ls/L -VT" I Xj Ij I fc3 . 



PORTLAND: 

1' i; I N T E D 15 Y B R O W N T II U It S T O N . 
1S57. 






festiree n^so'*^ 



^ 






CONTENTS, 



The Historical Society established, -- ---.-4 

Historical Publications in Maine, ..----- 5 

Early divisions and Settlers of Maine, ._-«---7 
Biographical notice of Judge Mellen, ------- 9 

Biographical notice of Stephen Longfellow, - . - - - - 17 

Biographical notice of Gov. Parris, -.-_--- 25 

r)iographicai notice of I!cv. Wm. Allen, ------- 31 

Biographical notice of Rev. Dr. Nichols, ------ 37 

Early Churches and Jlinisters in JIaine, -------40 

Aged Ministers, -_. .--.----41 

Biographical notice of Robert H. Gardiner - - - - - - 43' 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Maine Historical Society: 

I take occasion at this first meeting of the Society, since 
I -vras informed of my election as its President; to tender 
to you my thanks for the honor you have conferred upon 
me, in selecting me to preside over this learned association. 
To be one in the line of succession of the distinguished 
men, vs^ho have preceded me, in this office, is, of itself a 
source of gratification and of honor. Of my six predeces- 
sors, three have deceased. Chief Justice Mellen, Stephen 
Longfellow, and Gov. Parris, names only to be mentioned 
to be honored, vrhile the survivors, President Allen, late of 
Bowdoin College, Dr. Nichols, and Mr. Gardiner, of Gardi- 
ner, are still giving to the Society the mellow light of their 
mature age and varied experience. 

The government of Maine, early after its organization, in 
June 1820, imitating the noble example of the Common- 
wealth from which it had amicably separated, after a union 
of 142 years, took prompt measures to promote the cause 
of good learning, and good morals in the new Common- 
wealth, then commencing its hopeful career. 

The colonists of Massachusetts, within six years after 

planting themselves on the virgin soil, and before they had 
2 



4 INTROBTICTOEY ADDRESS. 

consolidated their government, witli great wisdom and fore 
si.bt, laid the foundations of Harvard College, and the wise 
sy°stem of eommon sehools. This example and its abund- 
ant fruits were not lost upon Maine ; at the first session of 
her legislature, she made provision for the establishment of 
a medieal sehool at Bowdoin College, and passed an " aet 
to eneourage literature, and the useful arts -'Y";™!:', 
by whieh was granted to Bowdoin College |21,000, and 
$7 000 to the college at WaterviUe. The next year, the 
Maine Medical Society was incorporated, which embraced 
seventy of the principal physicians in the State, among whom 
were Doctors Ammi R. Mitchell, of North Yarmouth, Eose, 
Coffin, Benj. Vaughan, Mann, Tappan, Stockbi-Wge Cony, 
Emerson, Folsom, Hitchcock, Parker, Prescott, L.neoln 
Weed, Snell, Griswold, Burleigh, Chandler-men who won d 
have conferred honor upon any commonwealth, which could 
have ranked them among its citizens. 

The next year, this Historical Society was incorporated, 
consisting of forty-nine members, including the Gov. of the 
State, the Pres. of Bowdoin College, the judges of the bu- 
preme Court, and other prominent men of the State, of whom 
kxteen only are now living. The Society was organised in 
ADril 1822, and Albion K. Parris, then Governor of the 
State was elected President. At this time, but little interest 
was taken in historical studies among us. Our people were so 
much absorbed in their material occupations, and there were 
so few, who with surplus capital, possessed any inclination 
toward literature, in any of its branches, that literary and 
historical pursuits were quite neglected. I think no histor- 
ical work, nor any other of literary pretensions, had pre- 
vious to this time, been published by any citizen of Maine, 
excepting some sermons, occasional addresses and Green- 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

leaf's Ecclesiastical Sketches, a valuable work published in 
1821. The same year, Mr. Freeman published, in duodeci- 
mo, extracts from the Rev. Mr. Smith's journal, with inter- 
esting and useful statistics. Gov. Sullivan, in 1795, had 
published his history of Maine, but although a native of the 
State, he had moved to Boston.* In 1829, Moses Green- 
leaf issued his laborious work, the statistics of Maine, in 
connection with his valuable map. This was followed next 
year, by Mr. Folsom's history of Saco and Biddeford, con- 
taining the result of much careful research and preserving 
many valuable facts, which otherwise would have been lost 
to history. In 1831, this Society published its first volume 
of transactions, which embraced the history of several towns, 
and other exceedingly valuable papers, among which were 
extracts from Gov. Lincoln's MSS, on the. Indian language 
and Catholic missions; a journal of the expedition across 
Maine to Quebec in 1775, by Colonel Montressor, with Gen- 
eral Arnold's letters ; and original documents relating to 
the early history of the State — all prefaced by a beautiful 
introductory chapter from the classical pen of Judge Ware. 

The next year appeard Mr. Williamson's history of the 
State, a work prepared with great labor and unwearied re- 
search, and which rescued from destruction most copious 
materials relating to our early settlements, and to the politi- 
cal and physical condition of our territory. 

These efforts contributed to draw attention to historical 
studies, and resulted in the production of town histories, 
and an increased interest in similar subjects, until the pub- 
lic mind became fully awakened to the importance of tracing 

* A brief history of Belfast, by Messrs. Abbott & White, had been pub- 
lished, and a short account of York, in the 3d vol, of the Mass. Hist Col., 
and the Rev. Mr. Cogswell, of Saco, had furnished a sketch of that place in 
1815, for the same collections. 



6 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

out and bringing to light the incidents, trials, hardships and 
successes of the early movements of civilization on this 
continent. And now, the study and development of our 
history and antiquities have become leading and favorite pur- 
suits among our people. 

Our first volume has been followed by three others, con- 
taining matter of great interest to the students of our his- 
tory, and creditable to the Society : the third volume was 
published in 1853, the fourth in 1855, and the fifth will be 
published before the expiration of another year, containing 
the first printed edition of valuable documents relating to 
the early settlements between the Kennebec and the Penob- 
scot rivers, which have recently been discovered in the State 
Department of New York. These are drawn from the re- 
cords of the Duke of York's Province of Cornwall between 
the years 1664 the year of the Grant, and 1692, when it 
was incorporated with Massachusetts under its new charter, 
a period during which our annals of that region had been 
very defective. 

We are still quite deficient in the history of our ancient 
towns which have materials of the deepest interest to the 
antiquarian. We have nothing from Kittery and York, our 
earliest settlements, fields that would well repay a careful 
gleaning ; nothing yet from Brunswick, an old and interest- 
ing locality, although we know that our indefatigable friend 
and member, McKccn, has gathered rich and copious mate- 
rials for a perfect history of the place j nothing from Cas- 
tinc and that large territory east of the Penobscot river, 
which for many years was under the rule of the French, and 
calls loudly for an historical explorer. 

Few States, we may venture to assert, have so broad a 
field for interesting historical inquiry, as Maine. Her early 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 7 

colonists were far from being homogeneous ; no State less 
so. She acknowledges among her earliest settlers, English, 
German, Dutch and French, who all contributed to colonize 
and settle diflerent parts of our coast, and of whom traces 
still remain. The English took possession of all the west> 
ern part of the State from Plscataqua river to the Kenne- 
bec. Between the Kennebec and Penobscot, the French and 
English claimed, and ultimately held, jurisdiction, but the 
occupants were principally a combination of Dutch, German 
and English. East of the Penobscot, the French held ex- 
clusive possession under the Indian name of Norembegua, 
and afterwards, the French, of Acadie, nntil its union with 
Massachusetts in 1692, when Governor Phipps took posses- 
sion of the country. The different parts have also borne 
different names ; the western, while jointly held by Mason 
and Gorges, received the name of Laconia ; after the divi- 
sion, in which it fell to Gorges, he gave it the name of New 
Somersetshire, from his own county in England : when he 
obtained a confirmation of his title from Charles I, in 1639 
with powers of government, he gave it the name of Maine, 
in compliment to the Queen, a daughter of France, who held 
the Province of Mayne in that country as her dowry. A 
portion of this territory lying between Cape Porpus and 
Cape Elizabeth, granted to John Dye and others in 1631, 
fell into the hands of Alexander Rigby, in 1643, who estab- 
lished a government over it and gave it the name of Lygo- 
nia. Between the Kennebec and Penobscot, the country 
has borne the various names of Pemaquid, County of Corn- 
wall, New Castle, and the Duke of York's Province. After 
the union, under the charter of 1691, the whole State was 
embraced in the County of York, and so continued until 
1760, when it was divided into the three Counties of York, 
Cumberland and Lincoln. 



8 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

Our immigrants did not, like those of the other parts of 
New England; come here for the enjoyment of religious lib- 
erty, but for speculation — to fish and trade, and for a larger 
verge than they could have at home. The English settlers 
"were generally conformists, their connection with the Church 
of England was not dissolved, and they continued to pre- 
serve that form of worship until they were overwhelmed by 
the superior power of their Puritan neighbor, Massachu- 
setts. The French were Catholics, and maintained firmly 
their own peculiar forms, under the guidance and control of 
the powerful and enduring priests. The Germans were Lu- 
therans, whose object was to occupy the vacant soil and im- 
prove their temporal condition ; they were accompanied and 
followed by their faithful pastors, whose sterling principles 
and rigid doctrines made a durable impression upon the 
sound and rugged minds of their flocks, which has remained 
almost untinged by surrounding heresies to the present day. 
There are diversities and wildly interesting materials, to 
give a romantic hue to the pages of the philosophic historian, 
or point the story of the novelist and poet. Some of them, 
like the Acadian Spoliation, have found an eloquent tongue 
in the Evangeline of our native poet : — 

Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed ! 
Scattered hke dust and leaves, when the blasts of October 
Seize them, and wliirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er tlie ocean. 
Naught but tradition i-emains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre. 

It seems to me appropriate to this occasion, and I there- 
fore propose to devote the remainder of my address to 
brief notices of the former Presidents of this Society, all 
of whom have been connected in a greater or less degree 
with the conduct and progress of our civil afiairs. And 
first, let me speak of the dead, Chief Justice Mellen, Stephen 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 9 

Longfellow: and last, of our recently departed member, 
Albion K. Parris. 

Mr. Mellen was the eighth of the nine children of the 
E-ev. John Mellen of Sterling, Massachusetts, and was born 
in that town, October 11, 1764. His mother was Rebecca 
Prentiss, daughter of the Rev. John Prentiss of Lancaster, 
from which family his christian name was derived. His 
grandfather was Thomas Mellen, a farmer of Hopkintou in 
Massachusetts. His father graduated at Harvard College, 
in 1741, and having served long and faithfully in the minis- 
terial ofSce at Sterling and Hanover, in the Old Colony, he 
died at Reading, Massachusetts, in 1807, aged 85. 

His elder brother Henry and himself, were fitted for 
college by their father, and entered Harvard together in 
1780, from which they took their degree in 1784, in the 
same class with John Abbott, long a professor in Bowdoin 
College, Silas Lee, a distinguished lawyer in Wiscasset, and 
others who have taken honorable positions in society. 
Henry, brilliant, witty, an attribute of the Prentiss stock, 
somewhat wayward, but beloved by all who knew him, estab- 
lished himself in the profession of law at Dover New Hamp- 
shire, where he died in 1809. Prentiss spent a year after 
his graduation, in Barnstable, as a private tutor in the family 
of Joseph Otis ; he pursued his legal studies in the same 
place, with the eccentric lawyer, Shearjashub Bourne, and 
was admitted to the Bar in Taunton in October, 1788. On 
that occasion, in conformity with an ancient custom, he treat- 
ed the Court and Bar with half a pail of punch. His own 
version of this treat was as follows, "according to the fash- 
ion of that day, on the great occasion, I treated the judge 
and all the lawyers with about half a pail of punch, which 
treating aforesaid was commonly called " the colt's tail." 



10 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

Judge Thacher of Maine, Judge Hall of Vermont am 
Daniel Davis, long settled in Portland, were also students 
in Mr. Bourne's ofl&ce. He felt great pride in Solicitor Davis, 
who was a native of Barnstable, and he used to say, " I took 
special pains toith Daniel. 

Mr. Mellen commenced practice in his native town, but 
removed in eight months to Bridgewater, where he continued 
until November, 1791. Not meeting with the success he 
desired, he again changed his domicil, and spent the winter 
and spring with his brother Henry in Dover. From that 
place, in July, 1792, he removed to Biddeford, in this State' 
by the advice of his firm and constant friend, the late Judge 
Thacher, who was then a Representative in Congress from 
Maine. Here he commenced that sphere of successful and 
honorable practice, which placed him at the head of the Bar 
in Maine, and at the head of its highest judicial tribunal. 

His beginning in Biddeford was of the most humble kind, 
and may give an idea of what professional men had to en- 
counter in that day. He thus described it to me : "I opened 
my of&ce in one of old Squire Hooper's front chambers, in 
which were then arranged three beds and half a table and 
one chair. My clients had the privilege of sitting on some 
of the beds. In this room I slept, as did also sundry trav- 
elers frequently, the house being a tavern." 

What his library was may be inferred from this humble 
of&ce apparatus. The population of Biddeford did not 
then exceed eleven hundred, and that of the whole coun- 
ty, which embraced a large part of Oxford, was about 
twenty-eight thousand ; all served by three attornies, viz : 
Dudley Hubbard of Berwick and Messrs. Thacher and 
Mellen at Biddeford. There was then one term of the 
Common Pleas Court held at Biddeford, and one term of 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 11 

the Supreme Court at York, for the year, in that county, and 
one term of the Supreme Court in each of the counties of 
Cumberland and Lincoln, for jury trials, which was all the 
favor the highest judicial tribunal was then permitted to 
extend to this District. The law term for Maine was held 
in Boston, and the records kept there. The whole popula- 
tion of the State was then about one hundred thousand. 
Gov. Sullivan had formerly lived and practiced in Biddeford 
but had removed to Boston, and was at the time of which 
we are speaking. Attorney General of Massachusetts. 

From 1804 until his appointment as Chief Justice in 1820, 
Mr. Mellen practiced in every County in the State, and was 
engaged in every prominent cause. In 1806, his practice in 
Cumberland being extensive, he removed to Portland, where 
his professional engagements had become numerous and 
where a very large commercial business was transacted. 
His competitors were men of high legal attainments, of 
great natural abilities, and able and eloquent as advocates. 
Daniel Davis had just before removed to Boston ; there re- 
mained, the accomplished Parker, afterward Chief Justice 
of Massachusetts, the patient and laborious Chase, the 
scholarly Symmes, both of whom, by their untimely death, 
opened a wider field for the new comers ; the grave and 
cautious Whitman, afterwards Chief Justice of Maine ; the 
sensible and acute Longfellow, and the ardent Hopkins ; all 
of them residents of Portland, and ornaments of the Cum- 
berland Bar. He also found able rivals in other parts of 
the State, in the adroit and eloquent Wilde, late of the 
Supreme Court of Massachusetts, the sagacious Silas Lee, 
and Orr, shrewd, skilful and prompt. , ■*; M-^ • 

To take the lead among such men, in their chosen pro- 
fession, required and proved Mr. Mellen to have possessed 



12 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

more than ordinary powers. It was often said previous to 
the separation of Maine from Massaclnisetts, that the Bar- 
of Cumberland was the best in the Commonwealth. And 
certainly that must have been a Bar of extraordinary quali- 
ty, which could at one time boast of lawyers superior to 
Parker, Symmes, Mcllen, Chase, Whitman, Longfellow, 
Emery, and the juniors Orr, Fessenden, Greenleaf, Davies, 
who came in as the others passed to the Bench or to a 
higher tribunal. 

At the Bar, Mr. Mellen's manner was fervid and impas- 
sioned ; his countenance lighted up with brilliancy and intel- 
ligence ; his perceptions were rapid and his mind leaped to 
conclusions to which other minds more slowly travelled, and 
as a consequence he was sometimes obliged to yield his 
suddenly formed opinions, to more mature reflection. On 
one occasion Chief Justice Parsons remarked to him when 
he was ardently pressing a point, " you are aware Mr. Mel- 
len, that there are authorities on the other side ; yes, yes 
your honor, but they are all in my favor." 

He identified himself with the cause of his client, and 
never for a moment neglected it, or failed to improve every 
opportunity in his opponent's weakness or errors, to secure 
a victory. His voice was musical, his person tall and im- 
posing, and his manner fascinating. 

His life was not entirely absorbed by his profession. In 
1808 and 1809, and again in 1817, he was chosen a member 
of the Executive Council in Massachusetts; and in 1816 
an elector at large for President. In 1817, while he held 
the office of Councillor, he was chosen a Senator in Con- 
gress from Massachusetts, with Harrison Gray Otis for his 
colleague. This situation he held until Maine was organized 
as a separate state, when in July, 1 820, he was appointed Chici 



INTRODUCTORr ADDRESS. 13 

Justice of its Supreme Court. The same year, he received 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from both Harvard 
and Bowdoin Colleges. 

He continued to discharge the laborious duties of Chief 
Justice with singular fidelity and ability until October, 1834, 
when having attained the age of seventy, he became consti- 
tutionally disqualified for the office. On the bench his tho- 
rough knowledge of practice, his familiarity with decided 
cases, and his quick perception of the points and merits of a 
case, were peculiarly valuable at a time when the new State 
was forming its system of jurisprudence, and establishing 
rules for its future government. The industry and ability 
with which he discharged his arduous and important duties, 
while at the head of our highest court, appears forcibly writ- 
ten in the first eleven volumes of the Maine Reports ; in the 
first nine of which he found an able exponent in his friend, 
the accomplished Greenleaf Of the sixty-nine cases in the 
first volume of Greenleaf, in which formal reports are given, 
the opinions in fifty of them were drawn by the Chief Jus- 
tice. A larger proportion still, appears in the second vol- 
ume, where of the eighty-four formal opinions, he drew sev- 
enty-four of them. And this industry and application is 
apparent through the whole series, in the last of which, sec- 
ond of Fairfield, of the one hundred and six opinions, he pre- 
pared fifty-five of them. Nor were those decisions of a light 
or hasty kind ; many of them involved points of the highest 
importance, requiring profound study, nice discrimination 
and keen analysis. It may not be improper to say that in 
these opinions the learned Chief Justice did not fall behind 
Ms high reputation as a lawyer nor of the elevated position 
which he occupied. And it is gratifying to be able to say 
that our reports were cited at that period, in other States, 
with great respect. 



14 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

Never were stricter integrity, nor a more earnest desire 
to render exact justice in every case, carried to the bencli : 
and no judge ever performed his duties more conscientious- 
ly. If any criticism may be permitted on a judicial course 
so pure and able, it might be said, that there were times 
when the judge's patience gave way before the tedious pro- 
lixity of some advocates, who were unwilling to give the 
court credit for a knowledge of the elementary principles 
of law ; or where witnesses were pertinaciously bent on 
telling all their experiences before coming to the point in 
hand. In such cases he would sometimes be obnoxious to the 
censure of the worthy Fuller, according to the canon of his 
" good judge ; " of whom he says, he is ''patient and attentive 
in the hearing the pleading on both sides ; and hearkens to 
the witnesses, though tedious. He may give a waking tes- 
timony who hath but a dreamy utterance ; and many people 
must be impertinent before they can be pertinent ; and can- 
not give evidence about a hen, but first they must begin with 
it in the egg. All which our judge is contented to hearken 
to." But we cannot say this always of our good Chief Jus- 
tice ; he could not sit still till this egg was hatched. In another 
aspect he however, amply met this worthy's requirement : '•' he 
nips those lawyers, who under a pretense of kindness to 
lend a witness some words, give him new matter, yea, clean 
contrary to what he intended." 

On his retirement from the bench, the Cumberland Bar 
addressed a letter to Judge Mellen, through a committee of 
its most respected members, expressive of the high sense it 
entertained of his services and merits, as an upright Judge, 
and of his qualities as a man, to which tribute of affection 
and respect, he responded with deep sensibility. 

In 1838, Judge Mellen was appointed by the executive of 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 15 

Maine at tlie head of a commission to revise and codify tlie 
public statutes of the State, which had accumulated to near- 
ly one thousand chapters, of various, and in some instances, 
of inconsistent provisions. He earnestly engaged in this 
task with his colleagues, the Hon. Samuel B. Smith and 
Ebeuezer Everett, Esq., and submitted their report on the 
first of January, 1840, embracing the whole body of the 
public statute law in one hundred and seventy-eight chapters 
under twelve titles. This was adopted by the Legislature, 
and constituted the first volume of the Revised Statutes. 

This was the last public service of our estimable citizen 
who had now passed the seventy fifth year of his age. 

But our portrait would not be complete without the lights 
which come from his private and domestic life. And this 
was as free from stain, as was the ermine of his judicial 
office. He married Miss Sally Hudson of Hartford, Conn, 
in May, 1795, whose acquaintance he made while practicing 
law in Bridgewater, and whose musical talents first attract- 
ed his attention. He described his engagement in the fol- 
lowing characteristic language in a letter to me, " I left 
Bridgewater in 1791, having there first seen and fallen in 
love with my present wife, and told her a piece of my 
mind.^ 

She was an amiable and accomplished woman, with whom -^UU 

he lived in domestic happiness over forty-three years, i^ She 
died in 1838, aged seventy-one years. By her he h^d six 
children, all born inBiddeford; of whom three daughters "l^tx 
only survive. The oldest son, Grenville, a graduate of 
Harvard in the class of 1818, is well known as a literary 
man, flowering out from the legal profession : he died in 
1841, at the age of forty-two. His son Frederick was edu- 
cated at Bowdoin, from which he graduated in 1825;- he 






16 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

prepared himself for the practice of law, but -waa seduced 
from it by the soft impeachment of art ; he devoted himself 
to painting, but died in 1834 at the age of thirty, before ac- 
complishing his high aspirations. 

Judge Mellen calmly and serenely yielded up his life on 
the last day of the year 1840, in the midst of his own win- 
ter, having passed through seventy-six years of a busy, well 
spent life ; firm in the conviction of an approval by the 
great Judge of quick and dead. 

The Cumberland bar erected a solid and durable marble 
monument to his memory, with suitable inscriptions, in the 
cemetery in Portland, over his remains. 

I believe that the remark he made in his last sickness, to 
t( uc»*vi^/.^Q perfectly true, "that he had always endeavored to do 
what he believed to be right." He was a religious man, a 
devoted attendant upon public worship, conscientious in the 
performance of duty and faithful in all the relations of life. 
His natural temperament Avas cheerful and gay ; full of wit 
and anecdote, fond of society, which he enjoyed to the last, 
and iu which his cheerful and benevolent countenance was 
always acceptable. 

He Avas a man of warm imagination and fine literary taste. 
He early inclined to cultivate a familiarity with the muses, 
and like his cotemporary Judge Story, made poetry the 
sport of his idle hours from his earliest to his latest age. 

The cultivation of poetry is not inconsistent with the 
severe pursuits of the legal science. Even my Lord Coke, 
who in the mind of the professional student is the personi- 
fication of dryness, often quoted from the poets, and ob- 
serves, "It standeth well with the gravity of our laAvyers to 
cite verses." Every body too, remembers Pope's praise of 
Mansfield, " How sweet an Ovid was in Murray lost." And 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 17 

our own days have witnessed in the eminent English lawyer 
Sir Thomas Noon Talford, the most elaborate and polished 
of legal poets. The following poetical jeii d' esprit on the 
law of pauper settlement, from an old poet, may be quoted 
in this connection as a true legal maxim in verse :— 

A woman having a settlement 
Married a man with none : 
The question was, he being dead, 
If that she had was gone. 
Quoth Sir John Pratt, " the settlement, 
Suspended doth remain, 

Living the husband, but him dead 

It doth revive again. 

Chorus of puisne Judges. 

Living the husband, but him dead 

It doth revive again." 

The calmness and patience with which our lamented friend 
bore his last sickness, gave ample testimony of the sinceri- 
ty of his faith and the firmness of his religious principles. 
At this trying period, he frequently uttered expressions of 
his entire submission to the divine will : impatient to be re- 
lieved from the burden of the flesh, yet perfectly resigned 
to wait. At one time he said, " I seem to be suspended 
between heaven and earth : the body clings to its native 
element, while the spirit struggles to be free." At another 
time he said, " I can't let go, the thread of life is too strong." 
It broke at length, and the spirit ascended to its congenial 
home. 

And now in the language of Fuller's "Holy State" "Ave 
leave our good judge to receive a just reward of his integ- 
rity from the Judge of judges, at the great assize of the 
world." 

I now come to speak of our respected friend, Stephen 
Longfellow, the wise counsellor, the able advocate, the hon- 
est man. Born March 23, 1776, in Gorham, to which place 
his father and grandfather had fled on the destruction o 



18 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

Falmoutli, by the British, in the previous October. His early 
days were spent in that town, on the farm of his father, and 
in studies necessary to prepare him for his future occupa- 
tion. Sometimes in his addresses to the jury, he adroitly 
drew illustrations from his farmer's apprenticeship, to point 
his argument or secure their favorable attention. I once 
had great fear of losing a case by one of these apt allusions, 
in speaking of his carrying butter to market in Portland. 

He was descended in the fourth degree from William Long- 
fellow, the first of the name who came to this country and 
settled in the Bycfield Parish, in the old town of Newbury, 
and who married there in 1678, Anne Sewall; his fath- 
er, grandfather and great grandfather were all named 
Stephen. His grandfather the first immigrant to Maine, 
graduated at Harvard College, in 1742 and came to Porf 
land, then Falmouth, as the Grammar School Master in 1 74/5)7 
He filled many offices of honor and trust, and exercised an 
important influence in the affairs of the town and county. 
He was fifteen years Grammar School Master ; twenty-three 
years Parish Clerk; twenty-two years Town Clerk, and 
fifteen years Register of Probate and Clerk of the Judicial 
Courts ; several of which offices he held at the same time. 
His son Stephen held the office of Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas from 1797 to 1811, and died much respected 
in 1824 at the age of seventy-four. 

His son, the subject of our notice, entered Harvard Col- 
lege in 1794, at the age of eighteen, and at once took an 
honorable position with the government and his College 
companions, by the frankness of his manners, and his uni- 
formcly correct deportment. . I have the privilege of ofi'er- 
ino; the satisfactory testimony of his associates concerning 
this period of his life. His classmate, Humphrey Devereux, 



r ^ 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 19 

now living at Salem, in a letter, says of him, " On entering 
College, Longfellow was in advance in years of many of us, 
and his mind and judgment of course more matured. He 
had a well balanced mind, no part so prominent as to over- 
shadow the rest. It was not rapid in its movements, nor 
brilliant in its course, but its conclusions were sound and 
correct. He was inclined to think, compare and weigh 
closely ; he did not soar into the regions of fancy and ab- 
straction, but kept on the terra jirma of practical common 
sense. In his habits, he was studious and exemplary, free 
from every contaminating influence. In a class which had 
its full share of talent and scholarship, he held a very rep" 
utable rank among its high divisions, and shared its honors 
in the assignment of the College government, and in the 
estimation of his classmates. In his temperament he was 
bright and cheerful, and engaged freely in the social pleas- 
ures of friendly meetings and literary associations. His 
manners then, as in later life, were courteous, polished and 
simple ; springing from a native politeness or a generous, 
manly feeling. He was born a gentleman, and was a gen- 
eral favorite of his class." 

The venerable Daniel Appleton White, of Salem, two 
years his senior in College, and now enjoying a serene and 
dignified old age, writes, " Mr. Longfellow was a general 
favorite with his classmates : the Rev. Dr. Channing used 
to speak in high terms of his excellent classmate : he said 
to me in one of his eulogiums, that he possessed great en- 
ergy of character." He again says, " I never knew a man 
more free from everything offensive to good taste or good 
feeling ; even to his dress and personal appearance, all about 
him was attractive. In his deportment and manners, he was 

uniformly courteous and amiable. He was evidently a well- 
3 



20 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

bred gentleman when lie left the paternal mansion for the 
University. He seemed to breathe an atmosphere of purity, 
as his natural element, while his bright intelligence, buoy- 
ant spirits and social warmth, diffused a sunshine of joy, 
that made his presence always gladsome." 

These high tributes to the youthful character of Mr. 
Longfellow, were fully sustained in his riper years. He 
graduated in 1798 in the class with Dr. Channing, Judge 
Story, Professor Sidney Willard, Dr. Tuckerman, and other 
distinguished scholars, of whom but sc\cn or eight in a 
class of forty-eight, now remain. 

On leaving College he immediately entered on the study 
of law with Salmon Chase, of Portland, who was then en- 
gaged in the most extensive practice of any lawyer at the 
Cumberland Bar : and was admitted to practice in 1801. 
He established himself at Portland, where the field was al- 
ready occupied by seven lawyers in a population of thirty- 
eight hundred. These prior occupants of this field, were 
John Frothiughara, who commenced practice there in 1778, 
and was for a while the only lawyer in the County. Daniel 
Davis, a polished gentleman and popular advocate, William 
Symmes, a good scholar and lawyer, but of very formal man- 
ners ; Isaac Parker, afterwards Chief Justice of Massachu- 
setts ; all these were from the old Bay State ; Salmon Chase 
and George E. Vaughan, from New Hampsire, and James 
D. Hopkins, a native of England, but whose parents immi- 
grated to Portland soon after the peace of 1783. There were 
but two other members belonging to the Cumberland Bar at 
that time, who were Ezekiel Whitman, then practicing at 
New Gloucester, and Peter 0. Alden, at Brunswick. Of 
these not one survives, but the venerable Judge Whitman, 
who was born in the same month and year with Mr. Long- 



>; 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 21 

fellow, and is now enjoying, in his native town. Bast Bridge- 
water, Massachusetts, a serene old age, the ripe fruit of 
temperance, self-control and a virtuous life. The County 
then contained apopulation of about thirty-two thousand. 

Nothwithstanding this array of able counsellors, Mr. 
Longfellow, fearless of the competition, earnestly engaged 
in the struggle which such a rivalship exacted. The foren- 
sic efforts and encounters were conducted with more regard 
to courtesy and the dignity of the Bar at that period than 
at the present time. The members of the Bar and the 
Judges on the Bench, carried into their official deportment 
the dignified and somewhat formal manners of the old school. 
Levity or vulgarity could not exist in the presence of that 
personification of dignity, the learned Chief Justice Dana, 
nor would rudeness or degrading personalities be tolerated 
by his more learned, but less polished successor, Chief Jus- 
tice Parsons, and his associates, the pure-minded Sewall and 
the stern and reserved Sedgwick. 

Parker, Davis, Chase and Whitman, could not do other- 
wise than welcome to their association, a brother, kindred 
to them in all elevated qualities. Mr. Longfellow soon se- 
cured a successful and profitable practice, and took a com- 
manding position at the Bar, by the urbanity of his conduct, 
his legal abilty, and the integrity of principles. One of his 
cotemporarics at the Bar, recently said to me, " Longfellow 
had a fine legal mind, he was industrious, attentive, courteous, 
and got into business at once. His first address to the jury 
was plausible and ingenious, and almost as good as any cue 
he afterwards made." On the death of Chase and Symmes, 
and the removal of Judge Parker to Boston, all which oc- 
curred in 1806 and early in 1807, he became one of the 
leaders in the practice, which, as he advanced, continually 



22 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

increased, until its accumulated weight bore too lieavily upon 
his over-taxed powers ; and he was admonished by a fearful 
attack of epilepsy, to withdraw for a while from the excite • 
ments of business and its overwhelming cares. He gradu- 
ally, although most reluctantly quitted a field, which had been 
to him a source of happiness and fame, and on which he 
had conferred dignity and honor. 

No man more surely gained the confidence of all who ap- 
proached him, or held it firmer ; and those who knew him 
best, loved him most. In the management of his causes, he 
went with zeal and directness of purpose to every point 
which could sustain it : there was no travelling out of the 
record with him, nor a wandering away from the line of his 
argument after figures of speech or fine rhetoric, but he was 
plain, straight forward and effective in his appeals to the 
jury, and by his frank and candid manner won them to his 
cause. And I may truly offer him as an illustration of Ful- 
ler's " good advocate," whom he thus describes, " He makes 
not a Trojan siege of a suit, but seeks to bring it to a set 
battle in a speedy trial. In pleading, he shoots fairly at 
the head of the cause, and having fastened, no frowns nor 
favors shall make him let go his hold." But with all this, 
although firm and unyielding when he believed himself to 
be right, he never forgot the duties of a gentleman and a 
christian, nor lost his suavity of manners in the ardor and 
bravery of action. " Quando ullum invenieiit parem ? " 

A man of such estimable qualities, was not permitted to 
give his whole time to his profession : the people demanded 
the exercise of his eminent ability and practical talent for 
their service; and in 1814, a year of great excitement and 
danger to the republic from the war with England, — a large 
fleet hanging upon our coast, and a well disciplined army 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 23 

menacing our northern frontier; — he was sent to the legis- 
lature of Massachusetts, and while there, he was chosen a 
member of the celebrated Hartford Convention, in company 
with Judge Wilde, from this State, George Cabot, Harrison 
Gray Otis and other distinguished Federalits from Massa- 
chusetts and the other New England States. In 181 G, he 
was chosen an Elector of President, and with Prentiss Mel- 
len and the other Electors of Massachusetts, threw his vote 
for the eminent statesman, Rufus King, a native of Maine. 
Mr. Monroe, the candidate of the Democratic party was 
elected for this, his first term, by a majority of one hundred 
and nine votes; for his second term, from 1817 to 1821, he 
received every electoral vote but one, which was thrown for 
John Quincy Adams, by Gov. Plumer of New Hampshire. 

This was the era of good feeling, or as John Randolph 
called it, the " era of indifference." Political harmony pre- 
vailed, such as had not existed since the days of Washing- 
ton : the old Federal party, which had embraced many of 
the wisest and best men of the country, whose names are 
now canonized, then ceased to exist; all parties united to 
render a sincere and hearty support to the federal constitu- 
tion ; opposition to which, in the early days of the govern- 
ment, had created the anti-federal party. 

In 1822, Mr. Longfellow was chosen to the eighteenth 
Congress, the closing two years of Mr. Monroe's second ad- 
ministration, where he was associated with Lincoln of Maine 
Webster of Massachusetts, Buchanan of Pennsylvania, Clay 
of Kentucky, Barbour and Randolph of Virginia, McLanc 
of Delaware, Forsyth of Georgia, Houston of Tennesee, 
Livingston of Louisiana — Henry Clay being Speaker of 
the House, John Chandler and John Holmes being Senators 



24 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

from Elaine. Having served out his term faithfully and 
well, and by his voice and vote, resisting the general and 
profuse expenditure of public money for indiscriminate in- 
ternal improvements, he took leave of political life, which 
liad no charm for him. The remainder of his years, so far 
as his health permitted, he gave to his profession ; how well 
he served it, the first sixteen volumes of the Massachusetts 
Reports, and the first twelve of the Maine Reports, extend- 
ing through a period of more than thirty years, bear ample 
testimony ; they exhibit his ability as a learned jurist, and 
his skill as an ingenious dialectitian. In 1828, he received 
from Bowdoin College the honorable and merited distinction 
of Doctor of Laws. 

In his domestic life, Mr. Longfellow was as exemplary as 
he was able in public and professional relations. Li Jan- 
uary, 1804, he married Zilpah, daughter of General Peleg 
Wadsworth, of Portland, with whom he lived in uninter- 
rupted happiness for more than forty-five years. She was a 
woman of fine manners, and of great moral worth. By her 
he had eight children ; four sons and four daughters. The 
sons arc destined to transmit the name with new luster to 
posterity, in lines divergent from the parental profession, — 
poetry, divinity and science. The elder surviving son, by 
his sweet and eloquent verse, has not only made his name 
vocal throughout his own land, but has found genial echoes, 
on the other shores of the ocean, and his numbers will be 
repeated in distant lands and times, like the songs of the 
rapt bards that have floated down to us through the cen- 
turies, which have preserved nought else. 

In all the relations of private and public life, Mr. Long- 
fellow was a model man ; kind and aflfectio.nate in his family, 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 25 

prompt and efficient in business, courteous uniformly, 
ready with money or service, whenever properly required, 
and filling large places in benevolent and religious institu- 
tions — his death was deeply mourned — and the people 
grieved most of all that they should see his face no more. 

A life so adorned, could not have been withdrawn from 
its sphere of usefulness, without making a palpable void; 
and I only express the universal sentiment that was felt at 
his departure, that an able, upright and Christian gentleman 
had gone ; one to whom may be applied language used in 
regard to an eminent English lawyer, " that he cast honor 
upon his honorable profession, and sought dignity, not from 
the ermine or the mace, but from a straight path and a spot- 
less life." 

The Bar, at a very full meeting, took an honorable and 
appropriate notice of the death of their deceased brother. 
Professor Greenleaf, the particular friend and admirer of Mr. 
Longfellow, and who for many years practised with him at 
the Cumberland Bar, in reply to a letter from another friend, 
inviting him to attend the meeting, said, "Dear Brother 
Davies : Many thanks for your kind letter and kind remem- 
brance. It warms and cheers me. I am strongly tempted 
to go down to the Supreme Court in November, especially 
as the meeting you anticipate will draw out the quca extaiU 
of the Cumberland Bar, as it was in our youth. We shall 
see Whitman and Potter, possibly Southgatej but where are 
Orr, and Mellen and Hopkins, and the rest of that day, and 
now at last, Longfellow ? It will be a scene of lights and -(^^ 
shadows." 

I am forcibly reminded of the shadows, by the sudden 
withdrawal from our daily observation, and from earth, of 
our fi.rst president, Mr. Parris. At the time I drew the 



26 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

sketch of his life for this occasion, he was in the full enjoy- 
ment of all his powers ; now they have ceased their exercise 
forever, and we have just followed his remains to the sep- 
ulcher of his fathers. We bow submissively to that decree 
which acknowledges no distinction upon earth. 

Governor Parris, our first President, held the office but 
one year ; he was then Governor of the State, and his offi- 
cial duties demanded his exclusive attention. 9 

He was born in Hebron, in this State, January 19, 17'^. 
his father, Samuel Parris, of whom he was the only child, 
was a native of the Old Colony in Massachusetts, and after 
the war of the Revolution, in which he served as an officer, 
he established himself at Hebron, which at the time was an 
unincorporated plantation. He held the office of Judge of 
the Court of Common Pleas for Oxford County, several years : 
was repeatedly chosen a representative from Hebron, and 
in 1812 he was chosen by the Federal party one of the Elec- 
tors of President, and united with the other Electors of that 
State in casting the vote of Massachusetts for DeWitt Clin- 
ton. He died in Washington at the residence of his son, 
September 10, 1847, aged ninety-two.* 

*The family Mas descended from Thomas Parris, of London, who 
had four sons living in London in 1660, viz : John, Thomas, Samuel and 
Martin. John was a minister of the Reformed Church at Ugborough near 
Plymouth, England. He had one son named Thomas, who came to New 
England in 1683, ha^^ng set sail from Topsham, in Devonshire, on the 28th 
of June. He settled first at Long Island, N. Y., where he married. From 
there he moved to Boston, where his wife died. He then moved to Pem- 
broke, !Mass., whore he married a Miss Rogers, and had four sons and three 
daughters, and died in 1752. His son Thomas avus born May 8, 1701, O. S. 
He married Hannah Gannett, of Scituate, Mass., by Avhom he had four sons. 
He died Sept. 7, 1786. His son Benjamin, born August 27, 1731, O. S., 
married Millicent Keith, of Easton, Mass , July 4, 1753, by whom he had 
five sons and three daughters. He lived in Pembroke, Mass., and was much 
employed as an instructor of youth : he died November 18, 1815. Samuel, 
the eldest son of Benjamin, was born August 31, 1755: he entered the 
army in 1775, and performed much serrice both by land and sea. On re- 
tiring from the army he married Sarah Pratt, of Middleborough, Mass., by 
whom he had one child only, viz : Albion Keith Parris. 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 27 

Governor Parris worked on his father's farm until he was 
fourteen years old, when he began to prepare for College^ 
and entered in advanced standing at Dartmouth in 1803. 
He graduated in 1806, in the class with William Barrows 
and General Fessenden, of our State, Judge Harvey, of N. 
H., and Judge Fletcher, of Mass. He soon after commen- 
ced the study of law with Chief Justice Whitman, who was 
then in practice at New Gloucester, and who next winter 
removed to Portland. He pursued his studies with great 
dilligence and was admitted to the Cumberland Bar in Sep- 
tember, 1809. He immediately established himself in the 
practice at Paris in the County of Oxford ; from that period 
his course was one of uninterrupted success. 

In 1811 he was appointed County Attorney for Oxford. 
In 1813 he was elected to the General Court in Massachu- 
setts from Paris. In 1814 he was chosen a Senator for the 
Counties of Oxford and Somerset, and in November, 1814, 
he was elected to the fourteenth Congress of the United 
States, for the years 1815 and '16, and again to the fifteenth 
Congress : and while holding this office of Representative to 
Congress, he was appointed Judge of the District Court of 
the United States for Maine, in 1818, at the age of thirty, 
as successor of the venerable Judge Sewall, who had held 
the office from the organization of the government. 

On receiving this appointment he moved to Portland, 
from which place, the next year, 1819, he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the Convention to form a Constitution for the new 
State, then seeking admission into the Union. This body was 
composed of the most able and prominent men in the State, 
over which William King was called to preside. Judge 
Parris took an active part in its proceedings and debates, 
and was a member of the Committee which drafted the Con- 



28 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

stitutiou, Mr. Holmes being Chairman. Among the members 
of this important Committee, were Messrs Dane, of Wells, 
Whitman, of Portland, Gen. Wingate and Chandler, Judge 
Bridge and Judge Dana. Mr. Parris was also appointed 
Treasurer by the Convention. 

On the adoption of the Constitution, and the admission 
of the State into the Union, of which it became the twenty- 
second member, Mr. Parris, then holding the office of Dis- 
trict Judge, was appointed Judge of Probate of Cumberland 
County, under the new dynasty, succeeding the venerable 
Samuel Freeman, who had held the office sixteen years as 
successor of Judge Gorham. While in the enjoyment of 
these honorable and responsible trusts, public opinion des- 
ignated him for the highest office in the State as successor 
to Governor King, who having been appointed one of the 
Commissioners on Spanish Claims, resigned the office. This 
nomination was not unanimously accepted by the Democratic 
party, some of whom preferred Gen. Joshua Wingate, and 
a triangular contest resulted of considerable harshness and 
asperity. Governor Parris was elected, and entered upon the 
discharge of the duties, before he had quite attained the age 
of thirty-three years, and was continued in the office by suc- 
cessive elections, five years. In his annual message in 1826, 
he pej?emptorily declined another nomination. Governor 
Parris administered the government with ability and faith- 
fulness : it was a period of repose ; there were no exciting 
questions to irritate the public mind. The most important 
subjects calling for attention, were those relating to the 
common property owned with Massachusetts, and the dis- 
puted northeastern boundary. The latter subject, was, to- 
ward the close of his administration, becoming of serious 
import, and had begun to create alarm as to the final result. 




INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 29 

The interests of education, religious culture and temperancC; 
■were often and earnestly urged by him upon the attention 
of the Legislature, and received respectful consideration. 
In 1825 Lafayette visited the State, where his reception was 
most cordial, and where he found some of his old compan- 
ions in arms to welcome their illustrious ally and friend. 
He was warmly greeted and entertained by the Governor. ^ 

But Governor Parris was not permitted to enjoy repose 
from official life. The last year of his administration had 
not expired when he was elected to the United States Sen- 
ate in place of John Holmes, whose term of service ended 
on the 3d of March, 1827. 

But he had scarcely become familiar with his new posi- 
tion, when in June 1828, he was appointed Associate Justice 
of the Supreme Court of our State, in the room of Judge 
Preble, who resigned the office on his appointment as min- 
ister to the Hague. Judge Parris having been for several 
years withdrawn from practice, and never having had much 
experience in the routine of the profession, on account of 
his early and steady employment in the public service, 
found himself somewhat rusty in regard to the decided 
cases and the progress of legal science. But with his ac- 
customed industry and facility, he applied himself to the 
study of the reports and the lea.rned elementary treatises, 
until he thoroughly qualified himself for the arduous and 
important duties of ihe Bench ; and it is but justice to 
say, that he received unqualified testimony from the Bar 
and the comumnity, of the ability, promptness and impar- 
tiality which graced his judicial life. 

He was not however destined to grow old upon the 
Bench, for he had hardly ripened his judicial powers and 
opened the way to judicial fame, before he was transferred, 



L 



A 



30 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

I cannot say to a higher sphere — but to one of more emol- 
ument and ease. In 1836, by the favor of Mr. Van Buren, 
he found an honorable position and a salary of three thou- 
sand dollars a year, as Second Comptroller of the Treasury 
of the United States. This office he held thirteen years 
until 1849., He soon after returned to Portland, of which 
city he was chosen Mayor in 1852, declining a second nom- 
ination. This is the last public office he held, and for the 
remainder of his life he reposed quietly upon his many and 
well won laurels. 

This career of public duty continued through a period of 
thirty-six years, never for an hour interrupted, is extraor- 
dinary, not to say unparalleled in recent times — offices too 
of the highest importance and responsibility. A member 
of Congress at the age of twenty-eight, Judge of the Uni- 
ted States Court at thirty, Govenor at thirty-tliree, prove 
him to have early acquired an unusual popularity. Without 
brilliant talents, or a large accumulation of knowledge, he 
proved himself equal to every office he was called to fill, and 
to every emergency which required his action. The secret 
of his success lay in his industry and close application to 
the duties of every office confided to him, his promptness 
and fidelity, his sagacity, his general suavity of manners 
and an easy adaptation of himself to every situation ; in 
short, it may with truth be said of him, that he faithfully 
and acceptably filled all the offices, however varied their 
duties, to which he was successively called. 

For several years previous to his death, he had been 
troubled with difficulty of breathing and sharp pains in the 
region of his heart, when making any considerable exertion ; 
this increased the last year and terminated in his sudden 
death on the morning of February 11th last. The City 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS- 31 

Council of Portland and the Bar of Cumberland, promptly- 
expressed their sense of their own and the public loss, and 
their sympathy on the occasion, and a general and honora- 
ble sentiment went up from the press of Maine, and from 
our citizens throughout the State in honor of this faithful 
public man. 

In 1810. Gov. Parris married Sarah, eldest daughter of 
the Rev. Levi Whitman, of Wcllfleet, Massachusetts, who 
with three daughters and ler-sonJ survive him. 

In speaking of our three departed Presidents, I am not 
unmindful of the classical injunction ^^ nihil mortuis nisi 
honumf but in describing the distinguished men, upon whom 
perhaps, I have dwelt longer than may have been agreeable 
to you, I could not, if I had a desire, be disobedient to it. 

I cannot better take leave of this part of my subject, 
than by applying the language of Chief Justice Crewe, 
in the De Vere case, in the time of Charles I, of England : 
" Time has his revolutions ; there must be a period and an 
end to all temporal things — finis rei'um — -an endof names 
and dignities, and whatsoever is terrene ; and why not of 
De Vere ? For where is Bohun ? where is Mowbray ? where 
is Mortimer? Nay, which is more and most of all — where 
js Plantaganet ? They are entombed in the urns and sepul- 
chres of mortality. And yet, let the name and dignity of 
DeVere stand, so long as it pleaseth God." 

Having thus paid a melancholy visit to the tombs of my 
honored predecessors, I must now turn to the revered and 
honored living, and offer to them the tribute due to their 
services and virtues. 

Our second President, the successor of Gov. Parris was 
the Rev. William Allen 5 he held the office from 1823 to 
1827 inclusive. 



1^ 
.J 



32 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

President Allen was the son of the Rev. Thomas Allen, 
the first minister of Pittsfield in Massachusetts ; his moth- 
er was Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Lee, first 
minister of Salisbury, Connecticut, and was a descendant of 
Governor Bradford in the fifth degree. His father gradu- 
ated at Harvard College in 17G2, was ordained in 1764, 
and died at the age of 67 in 1810. The subject of our no- 
tice was born in Pittsfield, January 2, 1784 and graduated 
at Harvard College in the celebrated class of 1802, which 
was larger and more distinguished than any which had prev- 
iously issued from that venerable University. 

On leaving College Mr. Allen commenced the study of 
theology with Dr. Pierce of Brooldine, and at the same time 
taught school in that town. He finished his preparatory 
studies with his father and was licensed to preach by the 
Berkshire Association of 1804. 

Soon after obtainiug his license he made a journey to 
Niagara, preaching at various places, and among others at 
Buffalo. The whole of that country, now filled with cities 
and a cultivated population, was a wilderness ; and Buffalo 
now numbering over sixty thousand inhabitants, had then 
but nineteen rude houses. 

In December, 1804, Mr. Allen was appointed and entered 
on the office of Rcgont in Harvard College, as successor to 
Dr. Channing, and continued to oceupy the situation until 
August, 1810. Tliis office was not connected with the in- 
struction of the College and was given to young men of 
good standing, to assist them to funds, and to furnish them 
with a residence in the College buildings, and opportunities 
for study; its duties being inconsiderable, merely to pre- 
serve order and watch over the deportment of students. 
He diligently improved the advantages which this situation 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 33 

aflforded; occasionally preaching in neighboring towns. It 
■was dnring this propitious period that he prepared his first 
edition of the " American Biographical and Historical Dic- 
tinary/' which was published in 1809. By this very useful 
work he gave important aid to students of American history 
and quickened public feeling upon topics then much neglect- 
ed, but in which now the people take a most lively interest. 
It was the first and largest work of the kind which had 
been published in the country: Belknap and Eliot only pre- 
ceded it. A second edition was published in 1832, enlarged 
and much improved, containing more than eighteen hundred 
Biographical articles, exceeding by eleven hundred those 
contained in the first edition. I am happy to be able to 
say that the third edition of this valuable work is now in 
the press, containing more than seven thousand biographical 
notices.* 

He closed his connection with the University by fulfiling 
the honorable appointment as orator to the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society, which occasion was doubly graced by a 
poem from Washington Alston. On the 10th of October, 
the same year, 1810, he was ordained pastor of the church 
in Pittsfield, as his fatlier's successor, having previously de- 
clined an invitation to settle in Braintree. 

In 1812, he married Maria Malleville Wheelock, daughter 
of John Wheelock, President of Dartmouth College, with 
whom lie lived on most affectionate terms, until her death 
in 1828. To this amiable and accomplished lady, he devot- 
ed the opening and closing stanzas of his poem " Hoosa- 
tunnuk," commenced in 1826, but not published until 1856. 
The following stanza at the close of tlie poem, refers to his 

* This edition is now issued from the press in two large octavo volumes. 



34 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

wife, and -will afford a specimen of tlic style of the work and 
of his affectionate regard for her. 

" How lovely was thy face when in the bloom 
Of youth it beamed upon my rapturous eye ? 
How lovely when o'er past the mother's doom, 
It gazed uj)on thy babes so tenderly ? 
No face — I've thought in many a blessed hour — 
Was framed like tliine for sweetness and for power. 

In 1816 the Legislature of New Hampshire, influenced as 
was supposed, by political considerations, passed an "Act to 
amend the Charter of Dartmouth College," by which its 
name was changed to Dartmouth University, and its powers 
materially altered. Under this act the old government of 
the institution was subverted and a new one appointed, at 
the head of which, Mr. Allen was placed as President of the 
University in 1817. The Trustees of the old College, es- 
tablished by charter in 1769, steadily resisted this proceed- 
ing, and commenced an action to test the constitutionality of 
the act of the Legislature. The case was carried by writ 
of error to the Supreme Court in Washington, and was 
there most ably and elaborately argued by Daniel Webster 
and Hopkinson for the plaintiffs, and John Holmes, and Mr. 
Wirt, the Attorney General, for the defendants, in 1819; 
and it was decided that the " Acts of the Legislature alter- 
ing the Charter of Dartmouth College, were repugnant to 
the Constitution of the United States/' all the Justices but 
Duval concurred, and Marshall, Chief Justice, Washington 
and Story, delivered long and learned opinions. This be- 
came a leading and very important case on the subject of 
corporate rights. 

By this judgment the new University, and consequently 
the office of President Allen, ceased to exist. Francis 
Brown, a former minister of North Yarmouth, who had been 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 35 

elected President of the College in 1815, as successor of 
the second President Wheelock, was reinstated in office. 

At this juncture, the office of President of Bowdoin Col- 
lege became vacant by the lamented death of the admirable 
President Appleton, in 1819; Mr. Allen was in 1820, chosen 
his successor. This was coincident with the establishment 
of our State government. 

President Allen continued assiduously to discharge the 
duties of this responsible station for nineteen years, until 
his resignation in 1839. In the early portion of the time, 
before the appointment of Prof. Newman to the chair of 
Rhetoric, he gave instructions in that department. 

While so engaged, and ever since, he has made it a point 
to note every new word, which occurred in his reading of 
authors of deserved reputation. In this manner he made 
a collection of over ten thousand new words, that is, of 
words not before embraced in standard dictionaries. He 
furnished Dr. Worcester for his large Dictionary published 
in 1846, nearly fifteen hundred of such words, and for Dr. 
Webster's Dictionary, published in 1854, over four thousand, 
and has recently placed in the hands of the publishers of 
Webster's Dictionary for the next edition, a catalogue of 
over six thousand new words. This is a striking fact, and 
while it entitles President Allen to great credit for this 
large contribution to useful knowledge, shows an astonish- 
ing change in the language. It may be accounted for in 
part by the rapid progress of science and the arts, during 
the last fifty years ; which has introduced a multitudinous ar- 
ray of new terms ; partly by the increased study of German 
and other foreign languages, which has fastened upon the 
Saxon a strange and uncouth vocabulary. A similar change 
is noticed by Selden, in his •' Table Talk." He says, " If 



30 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

you look upon the language spoken in the Saxon time, and 
the language -spoken now, you will find the difference to be 
just as if a man had a cloak that he wore plain in Queen 
Elizabeth's days, and since, here has put in a piece of red, 
and there a piece of blue, and here a piece of green, and 
there a piece of orange-tawny. We borrow words from the 
French, Italian and Latin, as every pedantic man pleases." 
Again he quaintly says, '* Words must be fitted to a man's 
mouth. 'T was well said of the fellow that was to make a 
speech lor my Lord Mayor, he desired to take the measure 
of the Mayor's mouth." 

President Allen during his term of office, occupied him- 
self with various literary and professional labors. He pub- 
lished numerous sermons delivered on special occasions, for 
which his services were sought, also the Dudlcian lecture at 
Cambridge, and a discourse on the value of the Bible. He 
also published his addresses delivered to the Senior Classes 
of Bowdoin College from 1823 to 1829, also a work enti- 
tled " Junius Unmasked," to prove that Lord Sackville was 
this " nomitiis umbra/' an account of shipwrecks, a duodec- 
imo of three hundred and thirty-five pages, which was a 
collection of most interesting narratives of perils by sea, 
also a new edition of Psalms and Hymns, a memoir of Dr. 
Elcazer Wheelock, and the second edition of his biographi- 
cal dictionary, containing eight hundred and eight closely 
printed pages^ 

On his retirement from the Presidency of the College, he 
established himself at North Hampton, -where he continues, at 
the ripe age of seventy-three, to pursue with his accustom- 
ed ardor and industry, studies and labors which have tilled 
and adorned a long and varied life. 

His latter publications have been a report on popery to 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 37 

the General Association of Massachusetts, a historical dis- 
course OR the fortieth anniversary of the second churcli in 
Dorchester, 1848, a memoir of the Rev. John Codman, who 
was his classmate, in 1853; a discourse at the close of the 
Second Century of the Settlement of North Hampton, Oc- 
tober, 1854; " Wunnissoo," or the "Vale of Hoosatunnuk," 
1856, with A'aluable and learned notes, and a portrait of the 
author, and lastly the preparation of the third edition of 
his Biog-raphical and Historical Dictionary, a task, which, 
from its large additions, must have required great research 
and labor. 

The bare recital of his numerous publications, must im- 
press every one with a deep sense of his industry, the ver- 
satility of Ills genius and his scholarly attainments. 

Our third President was the Rev. Dr. Nichols, of Port- 
land, who filled the office six years, from 1827 to 1833. Dr. 
Nichols was the son of Captain Ichabod Nichols, and was 
born in Portsmouth, N. H , July 5, 1784. Eight years after 
his birth, his father moved to Salem, Mass., and continued 
t > reside there until his death. He entered Harvard Col- 
lege in 1798, and graduated with the first honors of his 
class in 1802, at the age of eighteen years. Tliis high 
honor will be better appreciated, when it is considered that 
his class, consisting of sixty members, was one of the most 
distinguished tliat ever left the halls of that venerable Uni- 
versity. Among them were the Rev. William Allen, late Pres- 
ident of Bowdoin College, James T. Austin, of Boston, Dr. 
Codman of Dorchester, Dr. James Flint, of Salem, Professor 
Frisbic, of Flarvard College, Samuel Hoar, of Concord, Gov- 
ernor Levi Lincoln, of Mass., Andrew Ritchie, who was his 
rival for the highest honors, and Lcverett Salstonstall ; all of 
whom have occupied high positions in society. 



38 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

Mr. Nichols, notwitlis^anding his youth, applied himself 
with marked assiduity, to the study of the exact sciences, 
to which his mind naturally inclined ; his great proficiency 
in them commended him, in 1805, to the Faculty of the Col- 
lege, for the office of tutor in Mathematics. On leaving 
College he' had commenced the study of Theology with his 
beloved pastor. Dr. Barnard, of Salem, and he continued 
ther during the four years he filled the place of tutor. 

On the 27th of February, 1809, having preached four 
Sundays as a candidate for settlement in the First Parish 
in Portland, he was unanimously invited to become a col- 
league with the venerable Dr. Deane, then past seventy-five 
years of age. The Parish then contained among its inem- 
bers, Prentiss Mellen, Stephen Longfellow, Ezekiel Whitman, 
Woodbury Storer, Dr. Coffin, Matthew Cobb, Robert Boyd, 
George Bradbury, William Wigery, &c., the descendants of 
whom still occupy the pews. 

Mr. Nichols was ordained June 7, 1809, the Council be- 
ing composed of the Cumberland Association of ministers, 
to which were added some of the most distinguished clei^gy- 
raen of Massachusetts, such as the venerable Dr. Lathrop, 
Dr. Kirkland, and Mr. Buckminster, of Boston, Dr. Barnard, 
of Salem, and Dr. Abbott, of Beverly. It was on this occa. 
sion, that the first open manifestation was made of the 
division, which afterwards became so wide and inseparable, 
in the Congregational denomination of New England. Mr. 
Payson, who had been recently settled over the only other 
Congregational church in Portland, and was a member of 
the Council, declined giving "the right hand of fellowship" 
to JMr. Nichols, to which he was invited, and withheld his 
approbation of him as a candidate, on tlie ground that his 
theological opinions were not satisfactory nor sound. Mr. 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 39 

Nichols and the persons who took part in the services^ with 
one or two exceptions, were scceders from the old profes- 
sion of faith, and having passed through liberal Calvinism 
and Arminianism, they took the name of liberal christians, 
now called Unitarians, with a separate and distinct for- 
mula of faith, denying the received doctrines of the trinity, 
and the construction given by Calvinists to several other 
prominent articles of the prevailing creed. 

From that time, Mr. Payson declined exchanging with 
Mr, Nichols, and an entire separation took place in the re- 
ligious courtesies of the two societies, which has ever since 
continued. 

At that period there was no other acknowledged Unitarian 
Society in Maine, although there were several that were 
liberally inclined, and sympathized with it in sentiment. 
The elder ministers of the two societies continued their' 
friendship, and Mr. Kellogg preached the funeral discourse 
at the First Parish Church in 1814, on the interment of its 
aged pastor. Dr. Deane. 

After the death of Dr. Deane, Mr. Nichols continued sole 
pastor, diligently and faithfully discharging all the duties of 
the pastorate, until the settlement of the Rev. Horatio 
Stebbins as his colleague in February, 1855. 

Toward the close of that year, finding it necessary for his 
health to withdraw wholly from the cares of the ministry, he 
sent to the Parish a resignation of his pastoral office. The 
Parish were unwilling to dissolve the interesting and aff"ec- 
tionate relation which had existed between them for forty- 
six years, and expressed a desire that while he should bo 
relieved from all the duties of the office, the official charac- 
ter which he had so long sustained ijiight not be sundered. 



40 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

This was acceded to, and he still continues in form., the se- 
nior pastor, although freed from all the rcspoi sibili ics of 
the office. The principal members of the parish, to express 
their interest and affection for their beloved pastor, sub- 
scribed to a fund sufficient to purchase an annuity of five 
hundred and fifty dollars during his life. But Dr. Nichols, 
with a characteristic disinterestedness and delicacy, de- 
clined accepting this voluntary tribute to his worth, from 
an apprehension, by no means well founded, that it would 
place him under obligations to render future services? 
and because he thought the gift greater tlian he ought to 
accept. 

We may be permitted in this connection, to allude to the 
singular history of this ancient societ}'', established in 1718, 
but not organized as a church until 1727. Thomas Smith, 
of Boston, was in March of that year, ordained its first pas- 
tor. This was the sixth Church established in Maine, and the 
first east of Wells. Those which were prior to it, were the 
first church in York, over which tlie Rev. Samuel Moody was 
ordained in 1700, who died in the ministry in 1 747 — the sec- 
ond was Berwick, where was settled in 1707, Jeremiah 
Wise, a sound divine and able scholar, who continued in 
the ministry there forty-eight years — the church in Kittery, 
over which John Newmarch was pastor from 1714 to 1750; 
the church in Eliot, over which John Rogers was ordained 
in 1721, and continued his mini.-trations fifty-two years; 
Samuel Jefferds was settled in the churcli at Wells in 1725 
and died there in 1752. Next came the church in Falmouth 
over which Thomas Smith was ordaiued jMarch, 1727, and 
continued in the ministry until his death in May, 1795, at 
the age of ninety-five, and of a pastorate of sixty-eight years, 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 41 

two months and one half, whicli has few parallels in this or 
any other country.* 

The Rev. Dr. Deane was associated with Mr. Smith as col- 
league, in October, 1764, and continued uninterruptedly in 
the ministry until his death in November, 1814, a period of 
fifty years and twenty-five days. Dr. Nichols the pastor 
emeritus, still continues, and thus this ancient Parish for a 
period of one hundred and thirty years has had an uninter- 
rupted ministry, and never witnessed an hour when she had 
not a pastor, the third now being in full and active life. 

In 1792 there were but fifty-five settled ministers in 
Maine, of whom forty-one were Congregationalists, and four- 
teen Baptists ; not one of them survives. In 1856 there were 
in the State throe hundred and eighty-four settled ministers, 
divided into thirteen denominations ; the Methodists hav- 
ing the largest number, the Calvinistic Baptists the second 
and the Congregationalists the third. There is but one 
minister living in the State, who was settled prior to Dr. 
Nichols, and that is Rev. David Thurston of Searsport. 

*The following table will show the longest pastorates on record : 
Mr. Adims of Newington, N. H. 171-5 to 1783, <sd> years, 
Dr. Gay Hingham, Mass., 1718'to 17S7, G9 years, 
Nathan Buckiiian, Medway, 1724 to 179.3, 70 years, 
Thomas Smith, Portland, Me., 1727 to 179j, <j8 years, 
Mr. Whitney, Brookline, Con., 1750 to 18"24, 6^ years, 
Nathan Williams, Tolland, Conn., 17(50 to 1829, 69 years, 
Samuel Nott, Franklin, Conn., — 18j2, 70 years, died May 1852, aged 98, 
Samuel Deane, Portland, 1764 to 1814, 50 years. 

Rev. Nehemiah Porter of Ashfield, died in 1820 aged 99 years, 11 
months, but had left the pastorate many years before. 

llev. Nathan Birdseye of Strafford, died in 1818, in the 104th year of 
his age, and is the only Congregational minister on record, who has attain- 
ed 100 years, except the Rev. John Sawyer now living in this State, who 
was 100 years old Oct. 9, 1855, and who delivered an extemporaneous dis- 
course on the occasion of celebrating his centennial anniversary. 

In 1856 was living Rev. Laban Ainsworth, senior pastor of the church in 
Jeffrey, N. H., in his 103 year; born in 1754, the oldest graduate of Dart- 
mouth College, and probably the oldest clergyman in the country. 



42 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

In 1817 Dr. Nichols was chosen one of the Fellows of 
Bowdoin College. In 1821 he received from that institu- 
tion the degree of Doctor in Divinity, and in 1831 the same 
degree from Harvard College. He was also many years 
since elected a member of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, a distinction conferred upon quite a limited 
number of the citizens of Maine. 

In the autumn of 1855, being engaged in the preparation 
of an important work on the coincidences in the New Tes- 
tament, and the evidences of revealed religion, he moved to 
Cambridge for the purpose of consulting learned works, not 
Avithin hig reach in our State, and to superintend its publi- 
cation. He has also in preparation for the press a volume 
of sermons. These favorite occupations of his leisure 
hours, when given to the public, will no doubt add to a 
reputation, deservedly high, for learning, piety and schol- 
arship. 

Dr. Nichols has well sustained the position he acquired 
at College ; his life has been devoted to study and the ac- 
quisition of knowledge ; and his mind was receptive of all 
the stores which he greedily sought from the circle of Eng- 
lish and German literature, theology and science. No 
branches of knowledge were beyond his pursuit or grasp, 
for while theology has been the staple of his acquisition, he 
has never forgotten, or ceased to cherish those sciences 
which were the objects of his earliest attachment ; nor did 
he fail to court the lighter and more graceful pursuits of 
literature and the arts. We cannot hesitate to pronounce 
him one of the best cultivated and universal scholars that 
Maine has cherished in her hosom. Nor is he like many 
scholars, reserved in the communication of his knowledge ; he 
is ever ready in conversation to impart copiously from the 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 43 

full stores of his mind, on any subject opened to him. No 
one ever listened to his conversation without being deeply 
impressed Avitli a sense of his profound learning, and the 
large range of his thought, or being largely instructed from 
the rich stores of his mind. He is an admirable talker, as 
"well as thinker. 

The style of his pulpit discourses was always elevated ; 
he seized the salient points of his subjects, clearly present- 
ed and illustrated them, without descending to common 
places. From excess of thought and the fulness of his 
mind, they often rose above the level of the common appre- 
hension, and often required close attention to follow the 
course of his reasoning and argument. But they were able 
expositions and exhaustive of the subjects discussed. His 
extemporaneous discourses were also clear, animated and 
eifective. 

Dr. Nichols was twice married, first to a daughter of 
Governor Gilman, of New Hampshire, to whom he was 
united May 15, 1810. This admirable and beloved woman 
died in 1831, leaving two sons, one a physician, the other a 
clergyman, honorably fulfilling the duties of those profes- 
sions. His second and present wife, is a daughter of the 
late Stephen Higginson, long a distinguished merchant and 
philanthropist in Boston. 

I come now to speak of my immediate predecessor, whose 
long, active and useful life, has advanced the interests of his 
adopted State, as did that of his distinguished maternal 
ancestors, prior to the Revolution, in religion, education, the 
arts and manufactures. 

Mr. Gardiner was born in England, to which his parents 
and grandparents had retired, on the breaking out of hostili- 
ties in the colomes with the mother country. His father, im- 



44 INTRODUCTORY ADDllESS. 

clc and grandfather, had held responsible offices under the 
Crown ; his father and uncle having successively occuj>ied the 
embarrassing positions of Comptroller and Collector of Cus- 
toms during the exciting period just preceding the Revolu- 
tion ; they were also connected by family alliances with offi- 
cers in the British service, which, with the sense of their al- 
legiance to Government, seemed to leave them no alternative 
but to adhere to the royal authority. There were other 
causes impelling them to sacrifice their large properties in 
the province to their allegiance to the King. As officers 
appointed by the home government, they were regarded 
with great jealorgy, and were treated with the utmost con- 
tumely. The house of the uncle, Benjamin Hallowell, Jr., 
had been mobbed and sacked at the time Gov. Hutchinson's 
was destroyed, and had at other times been assaulted and 
injured; and his father, Robert Hallowell, as Collector of 
the port, was harrassed and insulted on many occasions. 

It would be interesting, had we time to pursue the sub- 
ject, to examine and weigh the various influences, which 
induced many of the most prominent men in Massachusetts, 
to abandon their native land, their friends and property, in 
maintenance of their allegiance to the mother country. It 
cannot be denied that they were men of the highest character 
for virtue, intelligence and social position; they embraced 
the whole body of Episcopalians, with slight exceptions, and 
included men of every profession. They doubted the nec- 
essity and the expediency of separation ; they doubled more 
the ability of the colonies to resist the power of England, 
and dreaded the result of a protracted and bloody contest. 
We can now afford to give to that large and respectable class 
of persons, who in that crisis abandoned their estates, their 
connections and country, and went into voluntary exile, the 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 45 

benefit of a liberal construction of their motives, and of a 
candid judgment of their characters. The Saltonstalls, 
Winslows, Sewalls, Ruggles, Tyngs, Pepperells, Royalls; 
Chandlers, Coffins, native born and honorable all, must have 
acted conscientiously, in the conclusion they unfortunately 
adopted. 

In this class of loyalists was Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, of 
Boston. He was son of William Gardiner, grandson of 
Benoni, and great-grandson of Joseph Gardiner, the first 
immigrant of the name to the Narraganset country in Rhode 
Island, and one of the first settlers of that country. Dr. 
Gardiner was born at South Kingston, in R. I., in 1717, was 
educated for the medical profession, and having spent eight 
years in England and France for the purpose of completing 
his education, he retui-ned to his native land and established 
himself in Boston, where he soon took rank in the first class 
of physicians and surgeons in New England. I may be 
permitted to dwell the longer upon this maternal grand- 
father of our late President, as he was, before the Revolu- 
tion, one of the largest and most substantial benefactors 
toward our State. 

Previous to 1753, the year in which the Plymouth Com^ 
pany was incorporated, under the name of the Proprietors of 
the Kennebec Purchase, Dr. Gardiner became one of the 
Proprietors. The territory of this company, after its 
boundaries were established by various litigation and com- 
promises, embraced the large tract extending from Merry- 
meeting bay to Norridgewock, fifteen miles in width on each 
side of the Kennebec river, and including the towns of Bath 
and Phippsburg. 

The meetings of this company were regularly licld from 
1749 to 181G, of which Dr. Gardiner was perpetual modera- 



46 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

tor prior to the revolution, and the most active of its mem- 
bers. He devised their plans, directed their measures, and 
expended large sums of money from his private fortune to 
promote settlements on the Kennebec. For these objects, 
X5000 were assessed on the company in eleven years after 
Dr. Gardiner took control of its affairs. It was owing to 
the earnest efforts and liberal contributions of this company, 
that forts Halifax, at Ticonic falls, and Western, at Augusta 
were erected by government for the protection of the coun- 
try from Indian depredations. In 1751, a party of German 
emigrants was induced by the offers of the company to set- 
tle at Dresden, many of whose descendants still remain. In 
1754, Dr. Gardiner cleared up a farm of four hundred acres 
on Eastern river in Dresden, — built houses and mills there, 
which became of great benefit to the settlers. The house 
is now standing, and is occupied by a great-grand-son of the 
original proprietor. The next year, he built houses, stores, 
wharves and mills at Gardiner, and cleared up a large farm 
there, and sent his son "William to manage his concerns at 
that place. 

In 1761, the year after the county of Lincoln was estab- 
lished, the Plymouth company erected at their own expense 
the public buildings for the county. The court house, three 
stories high, and then used for the accommodation of the 
judges and parties attending court, as well as for the court 
room and ofiices, is now standing on the bank of the river 
at Dresden, then called Pownalboro', a conspicuous object 
and a monument of the liberality and enterprise of the 
Plymouth Company. 

Dr. Gardiner was a liberal patron and a very active mem- 
ber of the Episcopal church ; he took especial pains to plant 
it on the soil of tlie Plymouth Company. A church aided 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 47 

by his exertions and means was established at Dresden, in 
wliich the zealons and learned frontier missionary, Bailey, 
long and ably officiated ; another was planted further down 
the river, and a third, liberally endowed by Dr. Gardiner, 
at Gardiner. He gave to it ten acres of land for a glebe, 
and bequeathed to it twenty-eight pounds sterling a year 
forever, for the minister. The missions of the Church of 
England furnished the first religions instruction in this part 
of Jifaine. 

These are some of the claims which Dr. Gardiner pre- 
sents to the people of this generation and of our community, 
for their consideration and praise. Similar enlightened 
efforts, longer continued and of larger extent, entitle the 
successor, and the present occupant of the estates^ to the 
like praise and admiration. 

Dr. Gardiner returned from England in 1784, and estab- 
lished himself in the practice of his profession, at Newport, 
R. I., where he died in 1786 in the eightieth year of his 
age. The Newport Mercury of that day, in a notice of his 
character, justly describes him as a " man of uncommon 
vigor and activity of mind, and of unremitted diligence," 
and adds, " his christian piety and fortitude were exemplary, 
his honesty inflexible, his friendship sincere." 

Hannah, the fourth child of Dr. Gardiner by his first wife 
Anne, daughter of Dr. Gibbons of Boston, married Robert 
Hallowell, son of Benjamin Hallowell of Boston, of which 
marriage Robert Hallowell Gardiner, the subject of this 
notice, was the only son. He was born at Bristol, England, 
then a favorite place of residence of the American loy- 
alists. 

Dr. Gardiner, by his will, bequeathed the property at Gar 
diner, which embraced a much larger tract than is now in- 



48 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

eluded in its corporate limits, and lying on both sides of the 
river, to his son William, who was residing on the tract; 
and in case of his death, without issue, to Robert, the only 
son of Robert Hallowell and his daughter Hannah, on con- 
dition that the son should take the name of Gardiner, and 
with certain entailments. 

William died the year after his father, and the estate de- 
scended to the present Mr. Gardiner, he having complied 
with the conditions of the gift. It must be a perpetual grat- 
ification to hiiu that he has been able and disposed so faith- 
fully and successfully to execute the enlarged and noble 
views — views beyond the age in Avhieh he lived — of his 
honored grandfather. 

Mr. Gardiner, at the time he succeeded to the inheritance, 
was but five years old: his father as executor of the will, 
came over to aduiinister the estate, but did not bring his 
family until 1792, when his son was ten years old. He was 
placed in the best schools the country afforded, in Boston, 
Andover and Hingham, and finally entered Harvard College 
from which he graduated in 1801, having for classmates, 
Timothy Fuller, the fiither of Margaret Ossoli, Hr. Gorham 
of Boston, Archdeacon Stuart of Canada, and William and 
George Sullivan, 

Not being of age at the time of his graduation, and his 
health being feeble, he spent sixteen months in foreign travel ; 
he also became a member of the. Anthology Society, a broth- 
erhood of choice spirits, who, composed of Buckminster, 
Shaw, Quincy, WilUird, Savage, and other young savans^ 
laid the foundation of the Boston Athenaeum, and contributed 
to give to that city the literary soubriquet of the Athens of 
America. 

Soon after his return from Europe, he entered wiih ardor 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 49 

upon the unaccustomed and severe duty of giving civilization 
and value to the rude regiou; over whose wide domain he 
was to assume the management. How great the sacrifice 
this kind of life demanded, to a young man educated in all 
the refinements of the age, and of the best society, may 
easily be conceived. But he disregarded them all. When 
he first came to the territory in 1803, the estate had been 
neglected by its proprietors for thirty years, and had fallen 
into a ruinous condition. A few families had drifted in from 
the west, and finding no person? who could give a title to 
land, they quietly seated themselves upon chosen lots, with- 
out formality, and proceeded to clear up farms. Of such 
persons there were already eighty-six families upon his 
township, who, in the language of the day, were called 
squatters. Their number had become so great upon the 
unoccupied land in Lincoln and Kennebec Counties, that 
they constituted a formidable power — a squatter sover- 
eignty — and seriously undertook to resist the lawful pro- 
prietors by force. Conflicts of the most alarming nature 
occurred, in the violent opposition they made to the 
running out and taking possession of their land by the own- 
ers of the soil. In one of these conflicts in 1810, Chad- 
wick, an assistant surveyor, was killed by a disguised party^ 
and on various occasions buildings were burnt and persons 
were robbed. 

They proceeded to even greater outrages, for after the 
persons engaged in the murder of Chadwick were commit- 
ted to the jail in Augusta, a large party of squatters dis- 
guised as Indians, attacked it for the purpose of rescuing 
the prisoners, and it became necessary to call out the mili- 
tia, not only to guard the prison, but to protect the court 
while engaged in the trials. This catastrophe, which ral- 



f;0 ' INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

lied the friends of good order to sustain the law, and the 
passage of the betterment act, as it was called, in 1811, 
which a;ave to the squatters the right to purchase their lots 
or receive pay for their improvements, restored peace and 
secured to landed proprietors the enjoyment of their titles. 
Mr. Gardiner, by pursuing a wise and conciliatory course, 
did not encounter many of the trials and difficulties to 
which other large proprietors were subjected. Perceiving 
the true state of tlie case, that there were really some equi- 
ties ia favor of the trespassers, and that they were determin- 
ed not to abandon their improvements without a severe strug- 
gle or an equivalent, he determined at once to invite the set- 
tlers to an amicable adjustment. For this purpose he issued 
a circular, calling a meeting of the settlers in Gardiner to 
come to some arrangement respecting the occupation of 
their lots. This movement was looked upon with jealousy 
by squatters in adjoining towns, as calculated to disturb 
their oro-anization. The settlers in Litchfield, therefore, 
came down in considerable number to disturb the meeting. 
Mr. Gardiner, finding that he could accomplish nothing 
while these intruders were present, and they refusing 
to leave the room at his request, promptly went to the 
leader a stout man, and led him out of the room; con- 
scious of liis wrongful conduct, no resistance was made ; 
the others quietly followed, and the door was locked to 
prevent further interruption. 

At this single meeting, a contract in writing was mutu- 
ally signed by Mr. Gardiner and every one of his tres- 
passers, by which all their quarrels were amicably settled, 
and peace restored to his community, while a savage war 
was rao-ing in the neighboring towns. The substance of 
the aoTeenient was, that the squatters should have the priv- 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 51 

ilege of purcliasing the lots wliicli tliey occupied, at a rea- 
sonable price on long credit ] or if they chose to abandon 
them, thej should be paid for their improvements a price 
to be determined by referees mutually chosen. The set- 
tlers were allowed the privilege of remaining upon their 
possessions twenty months after the appraisement, if they 
elected to relinquish them. This is the very spirit of the 
Betterment act and could not fail, from its equitable terms, 
to accomplish the most favorable results. About one half 
of the settlers purchased their lots and became useful and 
industrious citizens ; the others received payment for their 
improvements and left town. For these improvements, Mr, 
Gardiner paid five thousand dollars, a sum far exceeding 
their actual value, as in many cases little more had been 
done, than cutting down the trees and erecting log hovels. 

The wisdom of this proceeding was manifest in the confi- 
dence which immediately took place between the proprietor 
and the inhabitants, and their harmonious efforts to pro- 
mote the happiness and prosperity of the place. The in- 
habitants doubled between 1800 and 1810, while in the 
adjoining country, the angry contest continued to the injury 
of all parties engaged in it. 

Mr. Gardiner was now free to exercise his energy and 
good judgment in improving the large resources of his in- 
heritance. Expensive and permanent dams, mills and man- 
ufacturing establishments were erected, skillful mechanics 
and enterprising tradesmen were invited by the advantages 
of the location to employ their skill and invest their capi- 
tal in that fiourishing town. His own funds were liberally 
used to promote the prosperity of the place. 

On his first visit to the town in 1803, his journey was 

made by water, which, in consequence of the wretched con 
4 



52 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

clition of tlie roads, was the only comfortaLle mode of ac- 
complishing it. There was no carriage road to the place, 
or in that part of the country ; all communication was by the 
river or on horseback. Social visits were made by Avatcr. 
The mail was carried from Portland to Gardiner on horse- 
back, twice a week, and the postman was a day and a half 
in performing the journey. Mr. Gardiner applied himself 
diligently, to remove these embarrassments and to open the 
country to a more easy inter-communication. The transi- 
tion which fifty years have produced from the rude begin- 
nings of that period to the present facilities of communica- 
tion and business, cannot fail to make a deep impression 
upon one who has passed with almost the rapidity of a vis- 
ion from one scene to the other. Maine in 1803 and 185G 
are like two diflcrcnt creations, whether regarded from a 
material or intellectual stand-point. Those who have ex- 
perienced both alone can fully appreciate the contrast. 

Nor were Mr. Gardiner's energies limited to improving 
the physical condition of the territory over which he became 
the trustee and guardian. He took a broader and more 
comprehensive view of his duties and privileges, and early 
commenced a series of measures to advance the intellectual 
and moral condition of the people. Inheriting the ideas of 
his father and grandfather on the subject of religion, and 
being an Episcopalian from sincere conviction, he has given 
to that form of worship his ardent and efiectual support. 
In this and all his benevolent plans through its various in- 
strumentalities, he has had the hearty co-operation of his 
wife, a daughter of Col. Tudor, of Boston, and of liis inter- 
esting family. 

In 1819, lie contributed mainly to the erection of the 
lijeautifid stone cliurcli in Gardiner, then one of the finest 



INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 53 

structures in tlie State, and has ever since been its steady 
patron, aiding in all its efforts to promote religious instruc- 
tion in the Parish. 

Nor were his labors in the cause of general education 
less earnest or less efficient. The Gardiner Lyceum, incor- 
porated 1822, was a favorite project of his. It was intend- 
ed to be what its name purports, an institution in which all 
branches of knowledge should be taught, from the simple 
principles which would enable the farmer to grow larger 
crops, and the mechanic and manufacturer to produce with 
more skill and less labor the objects of their industry, to 
the sciences which give scope to the highest exercise of our 
mental faculties. A fine stone building was erected for the 
accommodation of the pupils, a valuable philosophical appar- 
atus, and a well selected library were furnished, to enlarge 
the sphere of instruction. Mr. Gardiner was so far the 
largest subscriber to the enterprise as almost to be called 
its founder. The school was the best of its kind in the 
State at the time, and flourished for several years. But its 
support required more means than private funds could well 
spare for it, and the great improvement in free schools di 
minishing the number of its attendants, its friends were 
obliged to discontinue it, notwithstanding the great advan- 
tage it had proved to that community and the cause of edu- 
cation generally. 

The town will long have occasion to remember Mr. Gard- 
iner for his eminent services and his numerous benefactions, 
among which was a large lot presented to it for a common ; 
this fine ornament of tlie place will be a perpetual source 
of gratification. No public improvement there lum failed 
to receive his support. 

Above all these, however, liave been the genial infhicnccs 



54 INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 

of the cliristiau example — the best part of a good man's 
life — which he and his family, for half a century, have grace- 
fully shed over that community. 

I have thus sketched portraits of the eminent men v/ho 
have presided over our Society since its origin, and have 
introduced upon the canvass interesting portions of our 
history with which for a period of sixty years some of them 
have been intimately connected. Their lives have been so 
interwoven in the annals of our State, that if they were left 
out, it would be like the performance of Hamlet with the 
character of Hamlet omitted. They have left their foot- 
prints as they have passed on. But we and society are ever 
moving onward — " The children of Time like their sire, 
cannot stand still." New candidates for fame and new 
laborers in the broad field of human effort, are pressing 
ardently forward, and crowd the avenues which their prede- 
cessors have opened and cultivated and adorned. We wish 
them God speed, and will leave for their encouragement and 
strength a cheering passage from the " Psalm of Life :" 

" Lives of great men all remind us, 
We can make our lives sublime, 
And departing leave behind us 
Foot prints on the sands of time ; 

Foot i^rints that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipAATecked brother, 

Seeing, shall take heart again. 

Let us then be up and doing, 

With a heart for any fote, 
Still acliieving, still pursuing, 

Learn to labor and to -wait." 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 041 029 9 s 



